"New Zealand has taken this action just after the US reportedly asked its allies to say 'no' to Huawei equipment. It's following the US' lead on this matter, but it will only end up hurting itself," he said.

State media has also been reporting on the alleged backwards nature of New Zealand's technology infrastructure.

"We often have windy days, and the network is particularly vulnerable," a Chinese woman living in Auckland told the Global Times. "The speed is really slow compared with China."

"It would be extremely disturbing if this was an example of Beijing-style censorship extending beyond China's borders and into that of a liberal democracy like New Zealand," cyber analyst Fergus Ryan told the Post.

However Skykiwi editorial director Ziming Li says most of the comments on his site support the suspension of Huawei.

"We never censor or restrict the identity of those made comments, so those comment anonymously can freely express their opinions on our website," he told Newshub.

"Since we value the freedom of expression, so we won’t control the opinions or attitudes of these comments. Therefore, I don't agree with what you mentioned that 'Beijing-style censorship' exists in Skykiwi."